Italian students in job placement scheme protests

Italian
students took to the streets to protest against the recently introduced
job-placement schemes. The protests come after a number of demonstrations
against contested school reforms named “the Good School”, passed by the
previous government of Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi. There was no
independent estimate of the total, but the student unions claimed 200,000
youths protested across Italy, with rallies in Rome, Naples, Milan, Salerno and
other cities. It was also a protest against alleged underfunding of state
schools.

The job
placement scheme is a compulsory work experiences for upper secondary school
students. 95% of schools - about 900,000 students – already participate in work
experience schemes. Thousands of Italian school students protested nationwide
over these work placements which they say doesn’t contribute to their future
job prospects. Many of them reported ending up working for free in retail shops
or fast food restaurants instead of having a hands-on constructive experience in
a field of their interest. Italy has the EU's third-highest jobless rate of
11.2%. The feeling of discontent is also due to the lack of future perspectives
for the new Italian generation.

A group of
students interviewed by ANSA declared: "Today we're being exploited and
tomorrow we'll be in totally precarious employment".

"We want
work placements that provide real alternative training and quality for
all," said Student Network national co-ordinator Giammarco Manfreda.

Italy
"continues to lack rules defining who can or cannot offer work
experience", he added.

Students said
they were tired of being humiliated by companies, whose work experience does
not amount to training at all.

The protests,
organised by student unions on social media were called “the students ‘strike”.
As strange as it sounds, young people who haven’t even entered the job market
have already gone on "strike" in 70 cities.

There was
some vandalism by protesters in Milan, targeting a McDonald's restaurant and a
Zara clothing store, seen as symbols of capitalist exploitation. Youths also
smashed a window at the Milan offices of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD),
then threw paint and smoke bombs into it.

The students
want the government to fulfil its promise of drafting a statute defining the
status of young people doing work experience and a code of ethics for companies
using them.

Italian
Education Minister Valeria Fedeli defended the centre-left government's
education policy. As it was reported on the main newspapers, she said that
internships gave students complementary skills, enabling them to face the
future with more knowledge, and she pledged to address the students' complaints
and work to raise the quality of internships.